My kid walks and rides her bike to kindergarten, we know every neighbour on our street, we turn off our tv and kids play like crazy with each other. We choose not to eat at fast food or chain restaurants if we don’t enjoy the food. Yeah, my kids don’t get the cream from the top of delivered milk bottles.
I get some of your point - I hate how sheltered and watched kids are and am loving the new push for letting kids have more independance. But for the most part I don’t see how your post illustrates a better time. We can still have all of those things if we choose to, plus now we have better medicine, less racism and sexism, easier travel, more access to new ideas and cultures, and really, the cream probably wasn’t very good for you.
Some nurses where I work were having this same discussion the other day, reminiscing about how they used to ride their bikes without helmets and ride unsecured in the back of pickup trucks. But as they thought about it, every one of them could name someone in their orbit who had been killed or seriously hurt doing such things.
Meanwhile, I see kids in my neighborhood riding bikes without helmets all the time. Granted, I live out in the sticks where we’re a few decades behind, but the internet and organized soccer have certainly made it here and kids still seem fairly free-range.
I think despite everything America is at the best its been socially since perhaps the days of the 1950s and early 60s before Vietnam. Crime is low, the inner cities have been revitalized (with sad exceptions like Detroit), digital technology has unleashed enormous amounts of information, America is strong and without serious rivals in foreign policy, and there is little social turbulance. Give me Great Depression II and let the people reunite rather than another era of hippiedom.
I think that Zeldar hit the nail on the head. We tend to remember the best things about the good old days while ignoring the things that either hurt too badly or were off our radar.
For example, IMHO, the reason that so many of us like the oldies stations on the radio, is that they ignore the really bad, stupid or unpopular songs, for the most part and only play the best of the era. Did we have bad music back then? Sure, but because it doesn’t get much airplay, we tend to forget about it (mercifully ).
There were a lot of good things that I remember growing up (born in '63), but there were also things like the commonly accepted casual racism, all of the assinations, a US president resigning in disgrace and friends and family members being sent to fight (and die) in a war that had little support at home.
Although there are things that I miss, I rather like living in our current time.
So you grew up in the '80s and that is your Good Ole Days.
The 70s when I got out of school were my Good Ole Days. The music and clothes were terrible. Jimmy Carter in his sweater was quite possibly the worst president in my entire life time, and I include Nixon, Reagan and W and all the years I have yet to live. I do not see how Jimmy will ever lose the crown. I can’t drive 55!
The late 70-80 cars absolutely sucked. If you can still find an American late 70/80s car that hasn’t fallen apart and is in excellent condition, they still aren’t collectable. And the economy was in the toilet, waiting for the dot.com revolution.
But for me, the 70s were an absolutely wonderful time. I was born in '56, right after the dinosaurs died, and my personal experience is all written in Oakminster’s post. I could have written that.
I remember the 80s as the self-obsessed cocaine and big hair years. I saw many more people self destruct at this time than any other. For me it was the end of unsettled years and the begining of all the adult responsibilities.
So it just depends upon your point of view. I think that the formative, teen age early adult years will tend to be the Good Ole Days for each individual.